Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner	Torstar
Editor	Fred Kuntz
Founded	1892
Political allegiance	Liberal
Price	CAD 0.75 Monday-Friday CAD 2.00 Saturday CAD 1.00 Sunday (Prices may be higher outside the GTA)
Headquarters	1 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario
Website: www.thestar.com

The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, though its print edition is distributed almost entirely within Ontario. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., a division of Star Media Group, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. Toronto Star logo This is a copyrighted and/or trademarked logo. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (454x800, 144 KB) Summary The frontpage of the Toronto Star newspaper, from the Newseum. ... Newspaper sizes in August 2005. ... Torstar Corporation TSX: TS.NV.B-T is an independently-owned Canadian broadly based media company that is named after its principal holding, the Toronto Star daily newspaper. ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Look up liberal on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Liberal may refer to: Politics: Liberalism American liberalism, a political trend in the USA Political progressivism, a political ideology that is for change, often associated with liberal movements Liberty, the condition of being free from control or restrictions Liberal Party, members of... Template:Hide = Motto: Template:Unhide = Diversity Our Strength Image:Toronto, Ontario Location. ... Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin: Loyal she began, loyal she remains) Official languages English (de facto) Capital Toronto Largest city Toronto Lieutenant-Governor James K. Bartleman Premier Dalton McGuinty (Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seats  - Senate seats 106 24 Area Total  - Land  - Water  (% of total)  Ranked 4th 1,076... Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. ... Star Media Group is a division of Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. ... Torstar Corporation TSX: TS.NV.B-T is an independently-owned Canadian broadly based media company that is named after its principal holding, the Toronto Star daily newspaper. ...

The Toronto Star's parent company, Torstar, also owns: Torstar Corporation TSX: TS.NV.B-T is an independently-owned Canadian broadly based media company that is named after its principal holding, the Toronto Star daily newspaper. ...

• Metroland Media Group, publisher of 3 daily and 105 community newspapers throughout Ontario.
• Harlequin Enterprises Ltd, the world's leading publisher of romance novels.
• 20% of CTVglobemedia, owners of the CTV television network and The Globe and Mail, a rival newspaper to The Toronto Star.

Metroland Media Group (formally Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing) is the publisher of daily and community newspapers in Ontario; as well as digital properties under Torstar Digital; and various home shows. ... Harlequin Enterprises Limited is a Toronto, Ontario-based company that is the worlds leading publisher of series romance and womens fiction. ... CTVglobemedia, previously Bell Globemedia until December 31, 2006, [1] is one of Canadas largest private media companies. ... CTV is Canadas largest privately owned English language television network. ... The Globe and Mail is a large English language national newspaper based in Toronto, Canada, and printed in seven cities across Canada. ...

History

The Star (originally known as The Evening Star and then The Toronto Daily Star) was created in 1892 by striking Afternoon News printers and writers. The paper did poorly in its first few years. But it prospered under Joseph "Holy Joe" Atkinson, editor from 1899 until his death in 1948. See also: 1891 in Canada, 1893 in Canada and the Timeline of Canadian history. ... Joseph E. Atkinson (1865-1948) was a Canadian newspaper editor and activist. ... See also: 1898 in Canada, 1900 in Canada and the Timeline of Canadian history. ... See also: 1947 in Canada, other events of 1948, 1949 in Canada and the Timeline of Canadian history. ...

Atkinson had a strong social conscience. He championed many causes that would come to be associated with the modern welfare state: old age pensions, unemployment insurance and health care. The Government of Canada Digital Collections website describes Atkinson as "a ‘radical’ in the best sense of that term...The Star was unique among North American newspapers in its consistent, ongoing advocacy of the interests of ordinary people. The friendship of Atkinson, the publisher, with Mackenzie King, the prime minister, was a major influence on the development of Canadian social policy." There are three main interpretations of the idea of a welfare state: the provision of welfare services by the state. ... Not to be confused with William Lyon Mackenzie, Mackenzie Kings grandfather. ...

But Atkinson was also a shrewd businessman who became the controlling shareholder of The Star and amassed a considerable personal fortune. The Toronto Daily Star was frequently criticized for practicing the yellow journalism of its era. For decades, the paper included heavy doses of crime and sensationalism, along with crusading zeal for social change. Nasty little printers devils spew forth from the Hoe press in this Puck cartoon of Nov. ...

Its early opposition and criticism of the Nazi regime saw the paper become the first North American paper to be banned in Germany by its government.

Beginning in the mid-1950s, the Star sought increased respectability by elevating professional standards and avoiding the sensational excesses of the past. It hired some of the country's most respected journalists and advocated expansion of the welfare state.

In 1971, the Toronto Daily Star was re-named the Toronto Star and moved to a modern office tower at One Yonge Street and Queens Quay. The new building originally housed the paper's presses. The printing plant was moved outside the city to Vaughan in 1992. The original Star Building at 80 King Street West was demolished. One Yonge Street One Yonge Street, built in 1970, is a 25 storey building is home to the Toronto Star. ... Vaughan (2006 population 245,000)[2] is a city in York Region north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ... The old Toronto Star building at 80 King Street West was built in 1929 by Chapman & Oxley and abandoned in 1970 when the Star moved to One Yonge Street. ...

On September 5, 2006, The Star launched Star P.M., a free newspaper in PDF format that may be downloaded from the newspaper's website each weekday beginning at 3:30 pm. September 5 is the 248th day of the year (249th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Portable Document Format (PDF), sometimes mistaken for Printable Document Format, is an open file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 and is now being prepared for submission as an ISO standard[1]. It is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a device independent and resolution independent fixed-layout...

Atkinson Principles

One Yonge Street - Current newspaper offices

Shortly before his death in 1948, Atkinson transferred ownership of the paper to a charitable organization given the mandate of continuing the paper's liberal tradition. Ontario's Conservative government passed a law barring charitable organizations from owning large parts of profit-making businesses. The law required the Star to be sold. The five trustees of the charitable organization circumvented the law by buying the paper themselves and swearing before The Ontario Supreme Court to continue the Atkinson Principles: Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (645x1011, 109 KB) Summary One Yonge Street, taken by SimonP Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (645x1011, 109 KB) Summary One Yonge Street, taken by SimonP Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ... One Yonge Street One Yonge Street, built in 1970, is a 25 storey building is home to the Toronto Star. ...

• A strong, united and independent Canada
• Social justice
• Individual and civil liberties
• Community and civic engagement
• The rights of working people
• The necessary role of government

Descendants of the original owners, known as "the five families", still control the voting shares of Torstar. And The Atkinson Principles continue to guide the paper to this day. Recent editorials have been headlined "Fairness for the deaf" and "Public policy fuelling poverty." In February, 2006, Star media columnist Antonia Zerbisias wrote on her blog: "we all have the Atkinson Principles—and its multi-culti values—tattooed on our butts. Fine with me. At least we are upfront about our values, and they almost always work in favour of building a better Canada." Torstar Corporation TSX: TS.NV.B-T is an independently-owned Canadian broadly based media company that is named after its principal holding, the Toronto Star daily newspaper. ... Antonia Zerbisias (born Montreal) is a Canadian journalist and media critic. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Editorial position

Proudly liberal, the Star remains to the left of centre in the Canadian context. Its precise position in the political spectrum — especially in relation to one of its principal competitors, The Globe and Mail — is hotly disputed. The paper finds room for left-leaning columnists and op-ed commentators who would be consigned to more marginal publications or websites in the United States. The paper was long a voice of Canadian nationalism and vigorously opposed free trade with the United States in the 1980s. The Globe and Mail is a large English language national newspaper based in Toronto, Canada, and printed in seven cities across Canada. ... Free trade is an economic concept referring to the selling of products between countries without tariffs or other trade barriers. ...

Editorial positions sometimes surprise readers. The Star was an early opponent of the Iraq War and sharply criticizes most policies of George W. Bush, but supported Canadian participation in U.S. continental missile defense. Recent editorials have denounced political correctness at Canadian universities and opposed proportional representation. For other uses, see Iraq war (disambiguation). ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ... Political correctness is the alteration of language to redress real or alleged injustices and discrimination or to avoid offense. ... Proportional representation (sometimes referred to as full representation, or PR), is a category of electoral formula aiming at a close match between the percentage of votes that groups of candidates (grouped by a certain measure) obtain in elections and the percentage of seats they receive (usually in legislative assemblies). ...

The paper has almost always endorsed the Liberal Party federally. The Star was the only major daily to do so in the 2006 federal election while many of the other major papers endorsed the Conservatives. The Star has never endorsed the social-democratic New Democratic Party, though it came close to doing so provincially in 1990. The paper endorsed the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in many of the provincial elections from the 1940s to the 1980s. (Star journalist Claire Hoy coined the nickname "Big Blue Machine" in 1971 to describe the PC political organization which frequently ran on a moderate agenda.) The Liberal Party of Canada (French: ), colloquially known as the Grits (originally Clear Grits), is a Canadian federal political party. ... Rendition of party representation in the 39th Canadian parliament decided by this election. ... The current tally of the newspaper endorsements for the 2006 Canadian federal election has shown a strong wave of new endorsements for the Conservative Party of Canada, led by Stephen Harper. ... The New Democratic Party (NDP; Nouveau Parti démocratique in French) is a political party in Canada with a progressive social democratic philosophy that contests elections at both the federal and provincial levels. ... The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party (PC Party of Ontario) is a right-of-centre political party in Ontario, Canada. ... Big Blue Machine can refer to: Big Blue Machine (Ontario) - the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party political machine This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

That said, today few major North American dailies are further to the left than the Star. But the paper's editorialists and columnists usually avoid strident advocacy of radical social change. They prefer incremental reform, fuelled by earnest exhortation and appeals to compassion. Supporters praise the Star 's continuing commitment to its founding principles, applauding its ability to attract a large readership for many stories unlikely to be printed elsewhere.

Detractors call the newspaper "the only paper in the world edited by a dead man" (a derisive reference to The Atkinson Principles), or target formulaic "sob sister" stories that focus on the plight of the poor and downtrodden. Some accuse the paper of being a mouthpiece of the Liberal Party of Canada. In recent years, a few critics have even revived a previous put-down, "The Red Star".

Strikingly, the board of the paper's parent company, Torstar, includes business leaders, a former president of the University of Toronto, a former Supreme Court of Canada justice and a former executive of The New York Times. As well, the Star is the only Canadian newspaper that employs a public editor (ombudsman). Other notable features include an immigration/diversity reporter, a community editorial board, and charitable campaigns that solicit contributions from readers. The University of Toronto (U of T) is a coeducational public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ... The Supreme Court of Canada (French: Cour suprême du Canada) is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeal in the Canadian justice system. ... The New York Times is a newspaper published in New York City by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. ... An ombudsman is an official, usually (but not always) appointed by the government or by parliament, who is charged with representing the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints reported by individual citizens. ...

Features

The Star says it favours an inclusive, "big tent" approach, not wishing to attract one group of readers at the expense of others. It publishes special sections for Chinese New Year and Gay Pride Week, along with weekly sections entitled Condo Living and Shopping. Each day's newspaper is thick, often running to six or more ad-stuffed sections. A particular strength is local coverage of Toronto. In recent years, the newspaper has promoted "a new deal for cities." In October 2006, the Star launched a new annual competition, called Greater Toronto's Top 50 Employers, to profile the best places to work in the Greater Toronto Area. Chinese New Year (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), or Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. ... Gay Pride Week or Pride Week is an event held in Toronto, Ontario during the last week of June each year. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Competitive position

With four conventional dailies and two free commuter papers in a greater metropolitan area of about 5.5 million inhabitants, Toronto is the most competitive newspaper city in North America. The advent of The National Post in 1998 shook up the market. In the upheaval that followed, editorial spending increased and there was much hiring and firing of editors and publishers. Readers, advertisers and reporters benefited from the fierce competition; shareholders arguably did not. The National Post is a large Canadian English language national newspaper based in Toronto. ...

Unlike some of its competitors, The Toronto Star has been profitable in most recent years. But margins have declined and some losses have been recorded. In 2006, several financial analysts expressed dissatisfaction with The Star 's performance and downgraded their recommendations on the stock of its parent company, Torstar. In October 2006, the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Star were replaced amid reports of boardroom battles about the direction of the company. Torstar announced 85 layoffs just before Christmas, 2006. But Toronto newspapers, including The Star, have yet to undergo the large-scale layoffs that have hit almost every other North American market in the last few years.

The residual strength of the the Star is its commanding circulation lead in Ontario. This is mainly because it is offered for free to many rural subscribers, who report that they can cancel the paper regularly, only to be offered a subscription with free weekdays, or weekends and the balance of the subscription at a reduced cost. The paper remains a "must buy" for most advertisers. Some competing papers consistently lose money, are only marginally profitable, or do not break out earnings in a way that makes comparison possible. In common with many papers, the Star has long been criticized for inflating circulation through bulk sales at discount rates.

The Old Toronto Star Building, 80 King West in the 1930s

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1050x856, 121 KB) Toronto Ontario Canada 1930s King Street West near York Street. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1050x856, 121 KB) Toronto Ontario Canada 1930s King Street West near York Street. ... The old Toronto Star building at 80 King Street West was built in 1929 by Chapman & Oxley and abandoned in 1970 when the Star moved to One Yonge Street. ...

Management

Publishers

• Joseph E. Atkinson (1899-1948)
• Joseph S. Atkinson (1948-1966)
• Beland Honderich (1966-1998)
• John Honderich (1998-2004)
• Michael Goldbloom (2004-2006)
• Jagoda Pike (2006-Present)

Joseph E. Atkinson (1865-1948) was a Canadian newspaper editor and activist. ... Beland Hugh Honderich, OC , LL.D (November 25, 1918 – November 8, 2005) was a Canadian newspaper executive who was the Chairman and Publisher of the Toronto Star and Chairman and President of the Torstar Corporation. ... John Honderich, CM , LL.B (born 1947) is a Canadian businessman who was the publisher of the Toronto Star from 1994 to 2004. ... Michael Goldbloom (born 1953) is a Canadian lawyer, publisher, and academic administrator. ... Jagoda Pike is publisher of the Toronto Star and president of Star Media Group. ...

Current executives and editors

Editorial

• J. Fred Kuntz - Editor-in-Chief
• Robert Hepburn - Editorial Page Editor
• Sharon Burnside - Public Editor
• Joe Hall - Deputy Editor
• Phil Bingley - Executive Editor

Business management

• Peter Bishop - VP Corporate Development
• Wayne S. Clifton - VP Advertising
• Brian R. Daly - VP Human Resources
• James K. Fealy - VP Finance
• Gregory T. Loewen - VP Digital Media & Strategy
• Edward A. MacLeod - VP Consumer Marketing
• Glenn P. Simmonds - VP Production

News Section

Journalists

Reporters and columnists

Notable former columnists Royson James is the municipal affairs columnist of the Toronto Star, a major metropolitan newspaper in Toronto, Ontario. ... Haroon Siddiqui, C.M., O.Ont. ... Richard Gwyn (born 1934) is a Canadian journalist and author. ... Craig Kielburger (December 17, 1982- ) is a Canadian humanitarian and activist for childrens rights, with child labor in particular, most famous for forming a non-profit organization, Free the Children at the age of 12, with two of his friends. ... Chantal Hébert is a Canadian columnist and political commentator. ...

• Pierre Berton
• Greg Clarke
• Nathan Cohen
• Milt Dunnell
• Graham Fraser
• Ernest Hemingway
• Naomi Klein
• Michele Landsberg
• Duncan MacPherson
• Lou Marsh
• Peter C. Newman
• Robert Service
• Walter Stewart
• Charles Templeton

Among its best known current columnists are Geoff Baker, Linwood Barclay, Rosie Dimanno, Carol Goar, Linda McQuaig, Cleo Paskal, Ellie Tesher, Thomas Walkom, and Antonia Zerbisias. Pierre Francis Berton, CC, O.Ont, BA, D.Litt (July 12, 1920 – November 30, 2004) was a noted Canadian author of non-fiction, especially Canadiana and Canadian history, and was a well-known television personality and journalist. ... Milt Dunnell (born December 24, 1905 at St. ... Graham Fraser (born 1946 in Ottawa, Ontario) is a Canadian journalist and writer. ... Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. ... Naomi Klein (born May 5, 1970 [1]) is a Canadian journalist, author and activist. ... Michele Landsberg is an award-winning Canadian writer, social activist and feminist who wrote a major column for the Toronto Star newspaper. ... Duncan MacPherson (born February 3, 1966 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, presumed death August 1989 in Austria) was a professional ice hockey player who died under mysterious circumstances. ... Lewis Edwin Lou Marsh (February 17, 1879 – March 4, 1936) was a Canadian athlete and referee, and one of the pioneers of sports journalism in Canada, working at the Toronto Star for 43 years. ... Peter Charles Newman (born May 10, 1929 in Vienna, Austria) is a Canadian journalist who emigrated from Czechoslovakia to Canada in 1940 as a Jewish refugee. ... Robert W. Service Robert William Service (January 16, 1874 – September 11, 1958) was a poet born into a Scottish family while they were living in Preston, England. ... Walter Gordon Stewart (April 19, 1931 – September 15, 2004) was an outspoken Canadian writer, editor and journalism educator, a veteran of newspapers and magazines and author of more than twenty books, several of them bestsellers. ... Templeton as an evangelist Charles Bradley Templeton (October 7, 1915 _ June 7, 2001) was successively a Canadian cartoonist, evangelist, politician, newspaper editor, broadcaster and author. ... Linwood Barclay is a Canadian humourist, author and columnist. ... Carol Goar is a Canadian journalist, currently an editorial columnist for the Toronto Star. ... Linda McQuaig is a Canadian journalist, columnist and non-fiction author. ... Cleo Paskal is a widely published foreign correspondent and travel writer who has contributed to, amongst others, The Economist, The Independent, and the Sunday Times. ... Ellie Tesher is a Canadian journalist and advice columnist. ... Thomas Walkom is a frequent columnist for the Toronto Star. ... Antonia Zerbisias (born Montreal) is a Canadian journalist and media critic. ...

Superman and the Star

Joe Shuster, one of the two creators of Superman, worked for the Star as a paperboy in the 1920s. Shuster named Clark Kent's paper The Daily Star in honour of The Toronto Daily Star. The name of Kent's paper was later changed to The Daily Planet. Joseph Joe Shuster (July 10, 1914 - July 30, 1992) was a Canadian-born comic book artist best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Superman, with writer Jerry Siegel, first published in Action Comics #1 (March 1938). ... Superman is a comic book superhero, originally created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian artist Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics. ... The Daily Planet is a fictional broadsheet newspaper that appears in Superman stories published by DC Comics. ...

See also

• Old Toronto Star Building
• One Yonge Street - Current office space of the paper
• Star Media Group
• Metroland Media Group - Largest division of company
• Torstar - Parent Company to The Toronto Star

The old Toronto Star building at 80 King Street West was built in 1929 by Chapman & Oxley and abandoned in 1970 when the Star moved to One Yonge Street. ... One Yonge Street One Yonge Street, built in 1970, is a 25 storey building is home to the Toronto Star. ... Star Media Group is a division of Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. ... Metroland Media Group (formally Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing) is the publisher of daily and community newspapers in Ontario; as well as digital properties under Torstar Digital; and various home shows. ... Torstar Corporation TSX: TS.NV.B-T is an independently-owned Canadian broadly based media company that is named after its principal holding, the Toronto Star daily newspaper. ...

References and external links

• Atkinson Biography, Government of Canada website http://collections.ic.gc.ca/heirloom_series/volume4/88-91.htm
• The Toronto Star
• History of the Toronto Star.
• Harkness, Ross (1963) J.E. Atkinson of the Star, Toronto: University of Toronto Press
• Templeton, Charles (1983). Charles Templeton, an anecdotal memoir. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. ISBN 0-7710-8545-1. 
• Trista Vincent (1999). "Manufacturing Concern". Ryerson Review of Journalism (Spring): –. 
• Walkom, Thomas (1994) Rae Days, Toronto: Key Porter Books, ISBN 1-55013-598-8
• The Atkinson Principles